8/18/13

'Branding' Eases Resistance For Corporate Thugs

I really appreciate the dedicated reporting of Police State USA.When we recall that police are essentially investigators and enforcers who though first commissioned to serve and protect "the people", now are only in the service of politicians and their cronies, who don't seem to care one whit about "the people" - well, then it is not too surprising I guess, that social scientists would extend government's public relations efforts to include "Branding" - especially for the agents most threatening to the general public.Our corporations and politicians have taken "speak softly and carry a big stick" to a whole new and profoundly disgusting, disturbed and depraved level.

Government works to make federal agencies appear as protagonists on TV

'Branding' the agencies is important to keep the public complacently accepting police state behavior

The federal government actively works to get its agencies to appear
on television and portrayed as the protagonists. They say that
“branding” is important to their image and boosts the morale of the
agents. What they don’t mention is that it also acclimates the citizenry
to living in a police state.
Many agencies, including U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement
(ICE), actually staff an “entertainment and multimedia liaison” in order
to coordinate the agencies starring roles.
Brandon A. Montgomery is such a liaison for ICE. In a news release from his agency, he is described as “actively working to generate an agency presence in film and TV.”
“It’s important to get (ICE) on TV because it ensures we are on the
top of the mind to the American public and our stakeholders,” Montgomery
said, noting that it was 10 times as effective as putting an agency in a
news blurb.
When the public is used to seeing federal agents on television every
day, it desensitizes them to the Federal government’s agenda of
expanding its centralized authority, broadening it jurisdiction, and
federalizing crime and law enforcement across the country.
Not only that, but it embeds a caricature image of what government is
into viewer’s subconscious. The repeated portrayal of government
agents as the heroes and saviors of serves to reinforce the existence of
agencies and laws that shouldn’t exist in the first place.
Montgomery touts his influence at acquiring ICE features in TV shows
such as “To Catch a Smuggler,” “Border Wars,” “Chicago Fire,” “Hawaii
5-0,” “Burn Notice” and “Bones.”
It is unclear how much of the police promotion we see on mainstream
television is inspired by agency liaisons, but it is evident that the
airwaves are absolutely full of pro-government propaganda disguised as
entertainment.

A federal agent tears apart a vehicle at a checkpoint (Source: National Geographic’s ‘Border Wars’)

National Geographic’s Border Wars regularly promotes
checkpoints and prohibition laws. The viewership is conditioned to
seeing travelers stopped by federal agents, often followed by intensive
searches. Agents strive to tear apart vehicles to locate prohibited
plants and substances, fighting a Drug War that terrorizes the public in
more ways than I care to list.
“It’s not just for the public,” Montgomery said, “it boosts morale for special agents and the agency too.”
A morale boost may be in order for agents who develop a cognitive
dissonance when struggling to rationalize their employment duties with
the oaths they took. In the back of their mind it must be uncomfortable
throwing non-violent people in cages, and hearing Americans decrying
the violation of their rights at internal domestic checkpoints.

I always like to read the comments on articles I find provoking and was impressed with this single formal reply to this one.

“TV SUCKS ANYHOW!!!”

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Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.Benjamin FranklinOne has not only a legal, but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.Martin Luther King

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."Abraham Lincoln

“If tyranny and oppression come to this land it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.”James Madison